A deeply felt, fractured collection reveals a fractured, benumbed society.
A veteran Russian journalist reflects on her journey over the decades of increasingly stringent government censorship and violence.
In a vernacular style, Kostyuchenko, whose coverage of Russian’s invasion of Ukraine contributed to the 2022 shuttering of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, charts her early passion for journalism in the late 1990s when she began to read the work of the fearless Anna Politkovskaya, who was murdered in 2006, to learn what was really happening with the war in Chechnya. Growing up in Yaroslavl, Kostyuchenko learned the “official” line from TV, which her mother and neighbors listened to without asking questions, about the annexation of Crimea, and she began working at the activist newspaper when she was only 14. Within the loosely chronological, sometimes uneven narrative, the author inserts her own journalistic pieces that reveal unsettling strata of Russia social and political life. She writes about “stalkers, diggers, suiciders, guards, and ghosts” inhabiting the abandoned Hovrino hospital, a piece that becomes a kind of sad statement on the greater Russian society; going undercover as an apprentice criminologist in Moscow in 2009; trying to cover the aftermath of the storming of the Beslan school in 2004, “the worst terrorist attack in Russian history,” and being thwarted by authorities; and getting stonewalled regarding the causes and environmental effects of the 2020 oil spill in Norilsk. The essays delineating the author’s work in the “internat,” a hugely understaffed facility for neurologically impaired inmates, are intimately, disturbingly detailed. Near the end, Kostyuchenko writes about the harried staff at Novaya Gazeta, and she movingly describes how they tried to tell the truth about Ukraine before they were shut down: “Outside, fascism was descending on our country.” For English readers, the translation may appear uneven and choppy and occasionally ungrammatical, but the author’s stories are important.
A deeply felt, fractured collection reveals a fractured, benumbed society.Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2023
ISBN: 9780593655269
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Penguin Press
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2023
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.
A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.
Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022
An engrossing and ominous chronicle, told by a master of the form.
Documenting perilous times.
In his most recent behind-the-scenes account of political power and how it is wielded, Woodward synthesizes several narrative strands, from the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel to the 2024 presidential campaign. Woodward’s clear, gripping storytelling benefits from his legendary access to prominent figures and a structure of propulsive chapters. The run-up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is tense (if occasionally repetitive), as a cast of geopolitical insiders try to divine Vladimir Putin’s intent: “Doubt among allies, the public and among Ukrainians meant valuable time and space for Putin to maneuver.” Against this backdrop, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham implores Donald Trump to run again, notwithstanding the former president’s denial of his 2020 defeat. This provides unwelcome distraction for President Biden, portrayed as a thoughtful, compassionate lifetime politico who could not outrace time, as demonstrated in the June 2024 debate. Throughout, Trump’s prevarications and his supporters’ cynicism provide an unsettling counterpoint to warnings provided by everyone from former Joint Chief of Staff Mark Milley to Vice President Kamala Harris, who calls a second Trump term a likely “death knell for American democracy.” The author’s ambitious scope shows him at the top of his capabilities. He concludes with these unsettling words: “Based on my reporting, Trump’s language and conduct has at times presented risks to national security—both during his presidency and afterward.”
An engrossing and ominous chronicle, told by a master of the form.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9781668052273
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
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